You'll Find the Quickest Way
by Gabi-hime
Summary: Misaki & Oujirou and implied Shuuko & Icchan Oujirou's musings on the night train from Kobe.


You'll Find the Quickest Way

  


By Gabi-hime

  


(pinkfluffynet@yahoo.com)

Spoilers: The end of Angelic Layer TV.

Pairing: Misaki/Oujirou implied Shuuko/Icchan

Rating: PG – Nothing particularly dangerous here, folks

Synopsis: Oujirou's musings on the night train from Kobe.

A/N: Finally I write a story from Oujirou's perspective after countless many from Misaki's and I've also come back to serious fanfiction as opposed to silly ones that are mainly for illiciting belly laughs and warm fuzzies ^^. Yes, I do intend on finishing Public Relations (and hopefully before Christmas) and I also have two more Angelic Layer fics besides that (as well as the International Tournament that I'm still developing) and a Chobits fic as well (Minoru-kun and Yuzuki *_*). Rest assured, I'm still quite committed to writing in this community ^^.

------------

The rhythm of the train was comforting, a softly repeating rhythm, a thrum that somehow resonated deep in the soul. Mihara Oujirou liked trains.

  


Now that he thought about it, it was likely a good thing that he found trains so comforting. He wasn't exactly sure how he'd have managed to cope with his existence if he didn't enjoy train rides. If his calculations were correct he spent a majority of his time on trains coming to and from Tokyo and Kobe. It was nearly three hours each way, and there really is only so much one can amuse oneself with on the redeye from Tokyo.

  


Absently he wondered if Misaki appreciated exactly how much time he spent in transit just to be able to appear at her side at opportune moments. It took quite a bit of work to appear mysterious and omnipresent all the time, especially when one lived in a different city from one's object of affection. He glanced idly down at her. Well, at least he didn't have to sit through this one alone.

  


Not that she was being particularly conversational currently. She had fallen asleep only fifteen minutes into the ride. Apparently she'd been just a tired as she had claimed for nearly two hours previous. She also wasn't nearly the train veteran that he was and she'd already had a three hour trip this morning. She'd surprised him earlier that day by shyly expressing interest in his home life. True, she'd been to his house on one previous occasion, but there had been extenuating circumstances to complicate that visit so he'd seen no reason to her put off. He'd then surprised her by offering to take her to Kobe that day. She had been a little abashed. She'd apparently not expected him to take her up on her request so soon but he'd had no other plans that day. The train tickets might be a little expensive, but it was nothing that he couldn't handle on the weekly allowance he drew from his Angelic Layer winnings.

  


So they'd arrived in Kobe by the noon train, just in time to have lunch at the station. They they'd toured his high school and its grounds (which were extensive). They'd returned to the city proper to pay a visit to the Kobe Piffle Princess where they were finagled into doing a free exhibition. He'd somehow managed to dodge his mass of fangirls and get Misaki back to his apartment in time for dinner with his mother, which had also gone fairly well. Misaki just had a way with people, it seemed. She certainly had a way with him that it was not at all common for an eighth year student to have.

  


He leaned over and tucked his jacket a little more snugly around her shoulders. She was swaying slightly, drowsing back and forth to the rhythm of the train. He sighed contentedly, a sound he would never allow his myriad of fangirls to hear, and then put his arm gently around her shoulders to lean her against him so she wouldn't go pitching head first into the steel floorboards or the plate glass window behind them should she loose her balance while dozing. She didn't stir a bit and he withdrew his hand quietly, so as not to disturb her. He blessed the emptiness of this car which which would allow him this innocent form of affection. He knew that if he had tried such a gesture while she was awake (no matter how drowsy) she would have responded in such a stuttering and embarrassed way that it would have drawn the attention of the entire car. Misaki might not try to be an attention getter, but she always managed to draw a crowd when she least intended.

  


Fortunately there was no crowd to draw here, with only the two of them in this car. It was unusual for a night train to Tokyo to be so empty, even one running this late, but the silence gave him time to let his mind wander. He fished around in his bag until he located his discman, a familiar companion on these long rides. He slipped his earbuds into place and thumbed the play button only to be accosted by Seto Ringo singing her latest single "Golden Evening Happy End." Oh that's right, Misaki had borrowed it to pass time on the earlier train ride. He chuckled quietly. He enjoyed Ringo's music and it was certainly good to practice to, but now he wanted something a little more soothing. Water music perhaps?

  


Oujirou had called Misaki's mother from the station before they'd left on the train so she was also advised of the late hour they'd be arriving. His brother had then butted onto the line and whooped and wailed for a while about getting "the champion" home in one piece without doing anything scandalous along the way. Oujirou had simply offered the casual rejoinder that nothing scandalous would happen on their end provided nothing scandalous happened on the home front. That had shut the old fellow up very effectively and Oujirou had smugly expressed his love for his elder brother before hanging up and explaining to Misaki that "Icchan-san" was going to keep her mother company until they got home. 

  


Misaki hadn't batted an eyelash, although whether it was because she didn't suspect anything or rather because she was all too aware he had no idea. He had it on good faith from Tamayo that Misaki apparently suspected a great deal more than she let on, although the younger girl wouldn't elaborate on exactly what she meant. She'd only offered a wink and a knowing smile. Who really knew with junior high school students these days?

  


He sighed again and this time it wasn't with contentment. He'd get "the champion" home all right. It was interesting how much those words had changed just over the course of a year. Yes, he'd ended up with the champion but it certainly wasn't in the way that he'd intended. In the end it had all turned out for the best, he supposed. The best laid plans of mice and men . . .

  


He'd first become interested in her on a professional level when he'd first seen her practicing in the Tokyo Piffle Princess. He had been advised that Shuu's daughter had started playing, but he certainly hadn't intended on running into her. It had been a golden opportunity to pace her however, and he was never one to pass up golden opportunities.

  


She was a novice most certainly, but she had remarkable natural talent and excellent timing. She'd managed to match all of Wizard's complex dance moves even though she'd been with Hikaru only a short time and had shown such singleminded concentration in something that seemed as frivolous as dancing that he'd been very intrigued. The Layer's Greatest Teacher did not generally involve himself with the worries of novice deuses, but this was a special case. He decided to watch her.

  


And watch her he did, with much interest, although it was still purely professional, he assured himself. He watched her win battle after battle against increasingly more difficult opponents until she took the Kantou Tournament. It had been quite the upset victory and she had truly proven herself worthy of the title "Miracle Rookie." For someone with no tactical training and very little experience she was amazing, a pure and natural talent, adaptable and versatile and very determined, especially for someone who seemed so meek.

  


It was at this point that he realized that his interest in her was perhaps a bit more than professional, although he still reassured himself that it was just admiration of her abilities and nothing more. When word came down from the main office that the rules would be changing for the national tournament he had advance notification, as was not surprising, considering he had a bit of an inside edge. Misaki had had no such edge, but he'd been inclined to offer it to her, along with a spare umbrella. Had the rain not cleared so immediately on his arrival he might had stayed and befriended her.

  


And it was then that he had realized it. For the first time in perhaps a dozen years he was actually persuing friendship with someone even vaguely close to his own age. Since he had first put on the visor during his fifth year of schooling he had devoted himself so intensely to Angelic Layer that he hadn't allowed himself to get close to anyone that wasn't directly involved. He also stayed away from other deuses so as not to complicate his relationships with them when he faced them on the field. For years Mihara Oujirou's friends and family had been the Research and Development team of the Angelic Layer Company and his dream had been Suzuhara Shuuko.

  


Before, his thoughts had been almost entirely of the Layer and its champion but now he found himself dwelling on the young miracle deus more and more often. His first offering of friendship was a dozen roses at her congratulatory party and a suave attempt to become her second for the tournament. He felt the need to keep a close eye on her even though his promised second meeting with Shuu still dominated his thoughts.

  


Although she had politely refused his offering of being second and supplied her own, he still got the chance to play her confidant and supporter when a summer cold had thrown another golden opportunity into his lap. Even at that point he'd felt a kinship with Suzuhara Misaki that he felt so uncomfortable about that he wrote it off as a side-effect of his interest in her mother. She was still only eleven years old, after all.

  


And then had come their weekend at the beach where he had fully indulged his whims perhaps a little unfairly because he still had not given up on Shuu. He had recognized Kobayashi Kotaro's interest in Misaki immediately upon meeting him and had made a point of thwarting the boy in a benign fashion at every opportunity. He had no real reason for doing so, he only felt that Misaki didn't belong with the boy for some unexplainable reason and did not want to give her the opportunity to choose that young man. He certainly hadn't begun to entertain notions of who Misaki might _belong with_ at this point, but he was quite sure who she _didn't_ belong with. He even made a point of sitting beside her the whole ride home from the seaside just to keep that boy at arm's length.

  


Their next meeting in Tokyo was also not a chance encounter, although he presumed that Misaki still considered it to be such. He had come to the point where he felt a need to keep at least one eye on her at all times, preferrably two, when he could spare them. He had also realized that he really did want Misaki to meet her mother, although he wasn't quite sure which problems such a confrontation would solve, theirs or his own. He had always been at odds over this issue with his brother – from the moment Misaki arrived en scene in Tokyo he had been in support of their meeting. Ichirou could always be cajoled by Shuuko's promises that she would "meet Misaki another day."

  


Oujirou sighed and drummed out the cadence of the waltz softly on the top of his discman. He supposed that his desire to see Misaki and her mother (for yes, now Shuuko was always "her mother" for him, rather than Misaki being "her daughter") reunited came from some deep desire to see all estranged families reconcile. His own family had taken some time to become whole and he hated to see her suffering (although bravely, like a little soldier) the same way he had.

  


They had both made their little sacrifices, but they knew each others' secrets now, and that suited him. It was somehow very comforting to know that Misaki would never buy him roasted sweet chestnuts as a consolation and he knew well enough not to buy her sweetened sugar pastries no matter the occasion, unless her grandparents were present, of course. At some point he was going to have to teach her to ride a bicycle, he idly noted.

  


Yes, Misaki's earlier wins at the Kantou tournament had made him respect her and their rather impromptu heart-to-heart on the streets of Tokyo had made him trust her, but it was her brilliant display during their semi-final match that made him admire her.

  


She truly was a genius, not simply a prodigy or a great natural talent. Her showing against him proved her incredibly capable of dealing with all comers, despite her status as a novice. In besting him she had proven that there was no one superior to her in the world as far as the technical execution and strategic planning of Angelic Layer was concerned.

  


She had broken Wizard's Magic Guard and as she did so she had also lain his soul bare for him to examine with the clarity of a scientist. She had destroyed the arm's length barrier he kept around himself when she came to him breathless at the end of the match and thanked him sincerely for fighting so hard. Somehow he knew that she would have thanked him even if she had lost. She had such a giving heart and seemed to him as if she felt there was no end to it because she gave freely and deeply to every deus she faced and every angel she met on or off the layer. It was this that made him finally let go of Shuu. In the softness of her thank you he finally realized that the girl in front of him was not Suzuhara Shuuko and in reality only bore a passing resemblence to her. Suzuhara Misaki was no Queen of the layer like Shuu. If he was the layer's greatest teacher then she was the layer's greatest friend. She had the remarkable ability to continually remind them that the game that they played was just that – a game. Angelic Layer was a game that you played with friends. In the end it was just a game and the purpose was to have fun and do your best. They were simple words but they struck a deep chord with him and as they sat facing each other before a thousand cheering fans he accepted what had been plaguing him since he'd first set out that day in the rain with a spare umbrella.

  


In the end, the person he felt Suzuhara Misaki belonged with was himself and he was to find (with some satisfaction) within a few weeks that she shared the opinion, although she was shy about offering her agreement.

  


Of course, it had been no accident that he'd announced his affection while on live feed in front of untold millions of fans. Oujirou was not one to let golden opportunities pass and it somehow felt appropriate that Angelic Layer be tied up in its proclamation since it had been so integral in its formation. It also had a wonderful fairy tale air to it that he could not help but be partial to. All those years of playing master magician had finally paid off. Of course, he couldn't recall the lady-fair ending up with the magician in any of the fairy stories he had been fond of as a child but this ending suited him very well. Oujirou felt very gratified by playing the hero of the situation, although he refused to be the knight in shining armor and was instead her wizard.

  


That apparently suited her just fine because as a lady-fair she had very few problems to sort through that he was capable of dealing with. She had no dragons to slay and no evil plots to thwart. She had only complicated familial relationships (much like his own) and she obliged him by sorting all those out by herself and offering him a quiet hand in sorting our his own as well. A quiet hand was well suited to him as he did not like admitting any weaknesses, certainly not in public. He had an image to maintain after all, an image that had almost overpowered his own personality and become _him_: The Prince of the Layer. Misaki had reminded him that he was a regular human being and although he still felt compelled to mystify and confound her he could also laugh out loud with her, order fried eggs, wear clothing that didn't really match or coordinate in any way at all, and do other positively non-mysterious things. She made living life as Mihara Oujirou as interesting as living life as the Prince of the Layer and living as the former was considerably more relaxing than living life as the latter.

She had also introduced him to her greater circle of friends, and now, for the first time in his life he not only had her but all her compatriots as well. This included her close friends outside the layer, the boy Kotaro and the girl Tamayo (whom he'd become fast friends with despite the obvious gap in their ages – she was always a valuable font of information after all) as well as most of the deuses on the grande circuit of Angelic Layer. Thus he'd suddenly become close friends with people he'd known for years but had never really connected with. In that sense (which was a sense he was never ever going to relate to anyone, although he suspected that both his brother and Misaki were aware of) he had really been a little socially inept before meeting her. Suddenly he had innumberable close friends and he was constantly being dragged off to Kaede's birthday party or Ringo's next publicity stunt. Although it was a little much to balance in his already full schedule he always made time for all of them and felt much more at ease on and off the layer.

  


And since he now had friends his own age there were now people to come to his surprise birthday party that was scheduled for two weeks from now and which he had known about for almost as long despite Misaki's attempts to keep a lid on the entire matter. Ringo just couldn't help talking it seemed, although she'd made him promise to _act_ very surprised. Well, it was the thought that counted after all.

  


He glanced down at his watch. It was a quarter of, which meant that they'd been on the train for a solid two hours. They'd come a very long way but still had a considerable distance to cover. He glanced out the window at the darkened countryside and watched it slip by like oily ink. Beside him Misaki stirred in the folds of his jacket and snuggled a little closer to his side. He smiled fondly down at her and rested a hand on her soft brown head.

  


She loved everyone so freely how could he help but love her back? Her deep resevoirs of nice were absolutely staggering and her genius on the layer was unparallelled. Her faith and drive could move mountains and without intending to at all she had changed his life. For him there was no longer any other "Champion" and nor would there ever be despite how many times that title might change hands in the future.

  


The rhythm of the train was so soothing, calming, like a steady, even heartbeat. They had come a very long way but they still had quite a distance to cover. As long as she was with him, lost in the folds of his overcoat, he didn't mind the journey at all.


End file.
